By The Crystal Clear LENS’ Report:
Appointments of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executive Officers by the President for elections around the country begin in earnest. Thecrystallens.org can reports.
As usual, there is intense lobbying by members and supporters of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the position, especially in the rural areas around the countryside.
In far away Sawla Tuna Kalba District in the Savannah Region, Ghana is indeed a rat race. The competition is getting tougher as the number of candidates gunning for the local glory keeps multiplying, and so far our report can confirm 20 candidates scrambling for one position.
Among the combative candidates for the DCE post, we have identified the following as Mr. Obkara Wuor, Mr. David Dapilah Dibaarinye and Mr. Charles Choetey Cantah. The rest were Mr. Tomah Gbolo, Mr. Gbaran Gbolo, Madam Losina Barikisu, a Regional NASARA Coordinator and Mr. Abu Kassim, a Constituency NASARA Coordinator.
But, the game of politics in Ghana can be very interesting as can also be highly shocking sometimes.
Our scout reports that the publicly disgraced Tamimu Lawal and the greedy Banasco Seidu Huhu are shamelessly contesting in the race once again, and so should either of them get the position they will use it only for their self-centered gain.
Having found stiff opposition this time, they are elbowing and engaging in all manner of shenanigans to get other contestants who may pose threats to their chances out, the report discloses.
Mr. Lawal was and is the caretaker DCE of the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District and Mr. Huhu was the heavily defeated NPP Parliamentary Candidate of the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba Constituency in the 2020 election.
Indeed, it is public knowledge that these men are a bad omen for the NPP because they have not only sunk the image of the NPP deep, they have brought shame in the Constituency and the District as a whole. The NPP supporters say these to our scout in an interview.
The NPP supporters in and around the district recounted the actions and inactions of Seidu Huhu leading to the defeat of the party.
They tell the scout their background, “This is a young man who was never known in the constituency. He never participated in any of the previous electioneering campaigns. What he was known for was doing the distribution of a few computers on behalf of an NGO he used to work for called NASCO, to some basic schools. He was known to be a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Legon TEIN branch.
Dye-in-the-wool party supporters further accuse Seidu Huhu as the parliamentary candidate of hoarding funds and resources meant for the campaign activities in the constituency, hence his inability to win the seat for the party, despite the massive resources the party has given him.
According to them, apart from the cash amount of GHc700,000 the party gives Seidu Huhu, the government also gave him very lucrative contracts that would fetch him additional money to finance his campaign.
They further said, “In the run-up to the 2020 general elections, the New Patriotic Party declared that it would adopt all orphan constituencies and support them with the needed resources to enable them to wrestle seats from the NDC.
Sawla-Tuna-Kalba Constituency was one. A whopping amount of GH¢700,000 was allocated for that purpose. Who would go home with this money? A tribal card was played, instead of who would add value or garner votes to the party.
Besides the allocation of this huge sum of money, he was given contracts to extend electricity to some communities like Gbiniyiri, Kporiju, etc. He was also given contracts to build CHPS Compounds, toilets, renovate schools, at various communities, which earned him some handsome profits. He claimed all these were his personal initiative, but our checks revealed that they were contracts awarded to him to execute for money.
He was given bales of used clothes, bicycles, sewing machines, hair dryers and accessories, motorbikes, etc for the campaign.”
Fast ward, the former DCE of the area, Tamimu Lawal is also not spared in the accusations of corruption and vituperative attacks by the supporters of the NPP in an interview with thecrystallens.org.
According to them, the abysmal performance by Mr. Lawal as DCE of the area is too grave to qualify him for reappointment.
They accused the caretaker DCE of theft and gross incompetence. They also accused him of misusing state properties including vehicles. All official vehicles, including a recently acquired Nissan Patrol, are broken down as a result of lack of proper care and maintenance, hence their resolve to reject his reappointment. As at the time, this report was filed, the NPP supporters said Tamimu Lawal had no vehicle to use, and so resorted to using any motorbike at his disposal.
December 2020, they recollected how officials from the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) now called the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) had busted Mr. Lawal for moving government properties secretly to his private house. According to them, this information is verifiable on citinewsroom.com.
“Four years down the lane in Tamimu’s appointment as Chief Executive of the district, he has never embarked on any familiarisation tour of the district to get abreast with development challenges of the people.
He has never held any successful Assembly General Meeting. He has never been able to perform any statutory duty to satisfaction.
Most often he doesn’t even go to the office to perform his duties as the Chief Executive of the District. As a result of his gross incompetence, the assembly members on several occasions threatened to pass a vote of no confidence on him. And at each given time he used the chiefs to stop them from doing so.
One other recent event that comes to memory is that after the 2020 general elections, he tried to convey all state properties in his official residence in Bole where his wife lives.
Unfortunately for him, the BNI officer had a tip off. So he called on the district police command to stall this thievery act. This is somebody who wants his mandate renewed by His Excellency the president. What has he done to justify the renewal of his mandate?”
